Faith in the First Place

Last night in our cell group I hit upon an interesting thought. First the details, then the thought.

We use the ALOVE UK Cell Outlines and we were on the third week of March. The passage we were looking at was Exodus 4:1-17. During the discussion, Dave mentioned a situation that happened to him many years ago- he was asked to do something, but he let someone else do that something. The guy totally tanked and he has felt guilty all these years for not doing what he was asked to do in the first place. Sounds suspiciously familiar to Moses and Aaron's situation.

As I thought about it, I wondered if the way the Exodus played out (plagues, anger, death, etc) was God's second best- Aaron tanking, because Moses shied away from what God wanted him to do. What if Moses had done what God asked of him without excuse? Would the whole situation have played out much differently? Perhaps showing God's glory and power in a way to actually win over the Egyptians? Wouldn't that have changed the way we look at history?

I'll certainly ask God that question some day.

But the real issue is not that we look back with regret for all our past mistakes. Rather we look forward to the next time God asks something of us- that we do it without question, hesitation or fear, knowing/trusting God has the best plan in mind; believing that he won't have to pull out his second option because we had faith in the first place.

That's huge!

That's where I want to be. Anyone want to join me in a pledge to be obedient the next time? And the next time.

And the next . . .